Posted by ray@lcorn on April 10, 2000 at 11:27:06:
How did your trip go? I’m back in town now… call me when you get a chance.
ray
Newbie needs advice on MH Park - Posted by Vicki
Posted by Vicki on April 07, 2000 at 14:27:27:
Found a MH park for sale and I need advice on how to proceed. I have very little or no $$. Totally new at this. Would appreciate any advice from those who’ve been there. Info so far is this:
9 acre MH park
3 MH lots on front 1/3 open land; 2/3 balance pine woods
Lots rent for $200 each; $7200 total
No other MH pads set up
Private water/sewer - this makes me nervous!
Broker owned
Price: $80,000
Looks kind of shabby. Neighbors are residential, horse stable, rental company.
Information seems to indicate I could expand park, expand single family or close park and subdivide.
Re: Newbie needs advice on MH Park - Posted by PeteH(NYC)
Posted by PeteH(NYC) on April 07, 2000 at 16:28:11:
Hmmm… What you need is a solid plan here. Depending on where in the country you are, your costs to expand the park can run from $6500-$15000 per pad to develop; you would also need to deal with clearing out enough of the pine to make room for the new pads. In NYState, in fact, 3 mobiles on a property doesn’t even come under the definition of “park” – you need four or more for that, which means putting any more pads on the land would open you up to regulations governing parks that the current owner isn’t dealing with.
If you don’t have the bucks to put into expansion, I’m not sure I see how you raise the value of this property. You could sell Christmas trees once a year. You can raise the rent possibly, depending on what your market is like; that might cause some resistance on the part of the people there.
Your best bet paying for the thing is arranging owner financing. If the seller is ready to go, he’s likely to be flexible about structuring the sale. One workable structure would be for you to master lease the park from him for some period – let’s say five years – during which you pay him roughly what he’s earning from the park now ($7200 less operating expenses), get some part of that credited toward your purchase price, and manage the thing over the period of the lease to improve the value.
My gut says you probably don’t have the resources to turn this deal profitable quickly enough, but you could do more research into your market and persuade me otherwise.